Chapter 5 - The Glass Fortress
Outside, the party had devolved into utter chaos. The influencers, stripped of their internet connection and trapped behind the locked iron gates, were hyperventilating. It was a digital blackout—the ultimate nightmare for a crowd that only existed online.
Inside the office, the tension was suffocating.
"You're out of your mind," Croft hissed, pacing frantically. "If you destroy Aura, you destroy the data of millions of people. You’re a terrorist."
"Aura was built on a lie," Marcus countered. "You patched my code with cheap firewalls so you could leave a backdoor open for the highest bidder. I’m not destroying data, Sterling. I’m locking the doors you left open. I’m securing it. But unfortunately for you, my security protocol locks you out permanently."
"Kill him," Croft ordered his lead guard, a scarred mercenary named Briggs. "Shoot him in the head before he can press the key."
Briggs drew a suppressed pistol, aiming it directly between Marcus’s eyes.
"Did you miss the part about the dead-man switch?" Marcus asked, raising his wrist to show a biometric monitor strapped to his pulse point. "If my heart stops, the code executes immediately. You shoot me, you shoot your company."
Briggs hesitated, looking at Croft.
"He’s bluffing!" Croft yelled. "He won't die for this!"
"Try me," Marcus said, his voice entirely devoid of fear. He stared down the barrel of the gun with the terrifying calm of a man who had already lost everything. "I spent three years in a six-by-eight cell. I’m already dead, Sterling. Are you ready to join me?"
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Croft stared at Marcus, realizing the horrifying truth. Marcus wasn't bluffing.
"Stand down," Croft choked out, waving Briggs away. He fell to his knees in front of the desk, the billionaire golden boy completely broken. "Please, Marcus. I beg of you. Tell me what to do. I’ll do anything."
